With the number of applications in the Android Market continuing to rise, Google is apparently adopting new tactics in their bid to outnumber applications in the iPhone’s App Store. David Pogue, a New York Times blogger, reported yesterday that he was contacted by an iPhone app developer who made him aware of Google’s latest attempt to get developers writing their apps for Android.

The developer, who is behind the Texts From Last Night app for the iPhone, told David Pogue how he received an email from a developer advocate at Google. He was asked if he wanted to port the TFLN application over to Android, and was offered a free Nexus One in the process.

Google’s process of recruiting developers to port their applications over to Android shows the contrast between Google and Apple, with Apple taking 3 months to accept Texts From Last Night due to what was deemed "inappropriate content" on one end of the spectrum and Google offering a free phone in order to facilitate Android development on the other.

“I’m the developer of the Texts From Last Night app for the iPhone. Anyway, I received an e-mail yesterday from someone at Google claiming to be in their Android Advocacy Group. He basically said that he wanted to open a line of communication with me in case I chose to port the app to Android, and he offered to ship me a free Nexus One to play around with.

“It shows that Google is actively recruiting developers to their platform, using the enticements of free hardware and open communication.

“Contrast with Apple’s approach: it took us about three months of resubmitting our app to Apple before they stopped rejecting it for inappropriate content. And even now (after we peaked at the No. 7 paid app), we still have no relationship with anyone there. Huge difference in approaches between the two companies.”

With Google offering deals like this to developers that have already proven they can make great apps for the iPhone platform, both the quality and quantity of apps on the Market will undoubtedly increase substantially in the coming months. If Google wants to beat Apple’s App Store in securing more apps (which they do), they are certainly on the right track.

Comments

Gogol

This is good, but it wont help because Google does not really care with Android users at large. Take a look into the Android Market support forums. HTC Legend users, HTC Desire users, after weeks of release they still cannot see nor buy protected apps from Android Market.

That sucks, big time. Not only hardware is fragmented, but the app market is also fragmented.